1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to doors and hinging assemblies for use in doorway systems.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Present architectural applications rely on the use of glass doors in the design of modern buildings. The use of glass panels in a door is often employed, wherein a variety of hardware must first be attached to the glass itself in order to securely mount the panel in a doorway. Once secured to a glass panel, the mounting hardware may be connected to a doorway or other support, such as for example a closer mechanism, in order to install the door in its position within the doorway.
The glass panels required for use as doors are usually heavy due to the strength requirement necessary to ensure safety from breakage during operation. Therefore, the more a door must be moved around by a crew of workers during installation the more difficult and awkward the task of installing a door becomes. This holds true for both the original installation process and any subsequent times when repairs to the closer mechanism are necessary. Such repairs mandate that the entire glass door be removed in order to access the closer mechanism.
In existing glass walls it has become possible to mount fixed panels or side-lights with minimal evident hardware interrupting the view through the glass. It has been possible even to mount the glass directly into the building structure. However, the glass doors used in such glass walls have necessarily included some means for pivotally mounting the doors in the building structure. Such hardware has been reduced or disguised by including it within a shoe or strip along the top and/or bottom of the door, or by reducing it to a box only large enough to cover the hardware. In either case, the hardwareholding element is aesthetically inconsistent with the seethrough character of the glass wall.